[Mark.B]

This post saddens me, but I've been tempted to post it for a long time. Now the time has come.

I love vB as a product, and there's no problem at the official support forum (vb.com) but over here things have gotten silly.

First of all, let me say I fully understand that people provide support of their own free will. It's not a slur on anyone like that, it's more a general observation.

Several years ago when I first came here there were plenty of people willing to assist and help people who may lack expertise. Such help was offered gladly and politely.

Lately though, things have changed for the worst. For example, look in the 'hack requests' forums and see the HUGE number of totally ignored requests, or ones responded to with a curt 'use the search button'.

Then go into some of the hack threads. You are lucky to get any response at all these days, and when you do, it's often 'read the thread' or 'read the rules' or 'learn to code before you ask'.

It is extremely unfriendly and off putting, and I have to say that other forum software now has much better hack support for the less experienced user.

Obviously this isn't universal but it's a growing trend. If this isn't to become an elitist community for experienced coders only, then people need to start being a bit more understanding of the fact that not everyone is an experienced php coder and not everyone has managed to read every single rule/sticky/announcement on here before posting.

In short, there's no need for people to be rude or 'off' with people for simply asking questions.